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New Music – No Ordinary Moments

The vibrancy that always follows from genre-blender, rhythm splitter, experiment handler, Toro y Moi. The group/man that never seems to have a basis of hard definition, the newest record Outer Peace is an intellectual journey through sound and paint.

Outer Peace is simply one of the best mixed records of Chaz Bear’s discography. Toro y Moi is a well-connected, well-taught machine of moving and manipulating parts. From tours, to eidetic adventure; Outer Peace is a solid advancement that has underlying factors that push the first tracks to a foreground of approachability. “Fading” is a club hit that quickly booms a stomping bass undertone as these warm synths cascade overhead. The vocals that are overlaid several times through coats of clay acts as mâché to a wide ball of density.

While the ominous 80’s sound pours through the speakers, Toro y Moi is a calm collective of various drum patterns and chord progressions that art kids to the conservative senior could fall in love with. Perhaps it relies on Bear’s non-rigid posture that comes to his music that is so incredibly quick to admire, or maybe the way that he shaped the instruments to fit as a direct extension of his own ligaments. In any right, Bear is an animal of intrigue here on Outer Peace, developing more in 30-minutes than most could in years.

The standout hit “Ordinary Pleasure” is progressive with these virtual horns that are disguised through key-working and the manipulation to dance. It is funky at the core, but has craftsmanship not seen through a modern release that feels like a direct dosage of Serotonin. Creating reds and oranges to the mix of the already innovative style that Toro y Moi adopts to, Outer Peace is a similar sense of expedition.

Even on the more stunned and passive times where “New House” takes the spotlight and changes the world around it into a darker, more sudden blue; the moment is still enjoyable. Impossible to cry while the record spins, “New House” uses elements of grand pianos that feature synthetic overlays covering the often authentic and direct voice of Bear. He is still calm, almost beyond relaxed even with a spacious sunset behind him taking Outer Peace through the middle marks and into the dusk-ridden streets of some quiet coastal town.

Toro y Moi continues to move as an impressive force through each release. Even the more abstract workings that require multiple listens, Outer Peace is easy on the ears and even easier on the emotions. Rather than a rollercoaster, Outer Peace is a pushing drive through mountain ranges that have both peaks and valleys, creating a dichotomy to find their own peace in the listener.